


Prisoner of Paradise: Rewritten

by Asphodel_Sky



Series: Hell and Paradise [3]
Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: Always female Dante, Always female Vergil, F/F, F/M, Guilt, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Incest, Molestation, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Post DMC3, Sacrifice, Self-Sacrifice, Sibling Incest, Sister/Sister Incest, Twincest, What if Dante fell to Hell instead of Vergil
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-16
Updated: 2019-12-16
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:40:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21814561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Asphodel_Sky/pseuds/Asphodel_Sky
Summary: Vergil loves Dante the most on this world, and she shows it in the way their father showed his love to Eva.A rewritten and improved version of the original work.
Relationships: Dante/Mundus (Devil May Cry), Dante/Vergil (Devil May Cry)
Series: Hell and Paradise [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1410763
Kudos: 14





	Prisoner of Paradise: Rewritten

Vergil peeks through the creak with a fascinated look.

Her mother has the most beautiful smile on her face, and the softest of eyes, when she looks down on her father, who is kneeling in front of Eva. He takes her hand and places a gentle kiss on the palm, one, then two, then three, while the mother’s other hand softly threads through Sparda’s hair. He looks as if he never wants to be anywhere else than where he is now.

Her parents aren’t afraid of showing affection to each other, or to their twin daughters, through kisses or hugs, but this one seems to be different. It feels more _special_.  
Eva takes Sparda’s face in her hands, lifts it up a little, and she kisses him straight on the lips.

Vergil’s little heart stops for a split-second.

As quietly as she could to not disturb her parents, she leaves and goes to find her darling sister. As per usual, Dante is out playing in the gardens, dancing and singing around the flowers their mother takes care of tenderly, her short hair free of any ribbons or bands or fasteners, are flying around in beautiful swirls, and Vergil can’t help but think she looks so pretty like that.

Then Dante stops in her tracks, having noticed her sister is there, and a big toothy smile shows up on her face. 

Even her teeth are pretty, even if one of them is missing due to them falling off to be replaced by the new ones. The elder twin remembers being so scared with Dante when she suddenly woke up missing a tooth, but Eva was able to calm them down and explain that little children lose their teeth to make a way for the new, better and stronger ones.

Vergil couldn’t help the smile showing on her face when Dante starts waving at her.

She kneels, not caring that her pretty black dress might get dirty. Her younger sister looks at her with confusion, a slight frown and curiosity.

Vergil takes both her hands and starts placing on them kisses, just like she saw her father doing so with her mother’s hand just a few minutes ago. 

“Vergil?”

“I saw how mom and dad were doing that and I wanted to do it with you” because as much as she doesn’t like sharing with Dante when it comes to her possessions, she loves sharing experiences with her.

Dante gasps, understanding falls in place.

“What they did later?”

When she told Dante, the younger sister started showering Vergil with kisses on one cheek, the other one, on lips, nose, eyelids, forehead and brow, and she continued until Vergil starts laughing, because at some point those kisses started tickling her.

“It will be our thing from now on too!”

Her Dante has never looked more beautiful than at the moment she said those words, thinks Vergil while basking in the warmth of her twin’s love.

~*~

A week after their eighth birthday, Vergil’s world was standing in flames.

And she is so, _so_ scared when those big, smelly, _frightening_ demons attack her when she's reading Blake’s works on the swings in the nearby playground. 

She doesn’t stand the chance against them, and she knows it.

But when on the cemetery she sees the great fire coming from the direction of their home, Vergil’s eyes see _red_.

How dare they bring the flames to their sanctuary? How _dare_ they attack their family home, how _dare_ they target her beautiful mother and lovely sister?

Vergil is not sure what happens next, but when she came back to consciousness, scattered remains of demons were lying around her. And because her mother just a week ago told the twins who they really are, she was able to deduce she had to awaken her other blood, the one coming from their father. Before she can delve more, she rushes back to her home.

Vergil enters the still burning building, shouting as loud as she can.

But no one responds.

She runs to their favorite couch, and the sight freezes the blood in her veins.

Her beautiful mother…

Oh, God.. 

Mother lies in the pond of her blood, her perfectly styled hair in disarray, the face twisted in the painful frown.

Vergil screams.

She wants to cry, she wants to lie down and throw Eva’s arm over her body, in a facsimile of a hug, and die here with her. But she can’t die here. She needs to find Dante first, see if she’s unhurt, because her sister always _needed_ Vergil to be with her, just like Vergil needs Dante. Together, they were stronger.

She makes herself to move away from her mother, and runs to Dante’s room If anywhere, she surely will be there, Dante will be there, hidden somewhere, together with Rebellion, she _has to be there_...!

She falls into the room, doors didn’t resist at all, but Dante is not there.

But Rebellion is.

She jumps to the cling, touches it and its cold.

 _So, so cold_.

Tears are leaking from Vergil’s eyes, for the cold blade means Dante is dead, dead _dead_.

She has to be — she remembers still the talk Vergil overheard Dante had with Sparda about Rebellion, a similar one she herself had with their father. How Rebellion resonates with its master’s feelings, and how it goes cold when they’re _dead_.

She wants to take her sister’s blade with her, but Rebellion responds to one master, and only the most powerful people can even _lift_ the sword without being its owner. Different matter is with Yamato — her weapon will let anyone lift it, but it will never let them use it to its fullest ability. Yamato works only with its owner and blood relatives, Rebellion works with its master and those deemed worthy by it. As of today, Vergil cannot even hope to move the blade without breaking her arms, though. 

But the undeniable fact is that she needs to leave it here.

Vergil doesn’t want to. 

She takes a long, gold ribbon from one of Dante’s favorite dresses instead, goes to her room, takes Yamato from her bed and ties the cloth around it, just under the hilt.

This is the only piece of her old life she allows herself to take as a memento before Vergil runs away from the burning manor. 

~*~

Vergil was seventeen, and she never felt so lonely.

She slept with some man nearby the Fortuna town, not thinking it will have any lasting consequences. It’s just one night, she thought back then.

How foolish it was to think like that.

And now she is bent over the toilet as the last of her hard won breakfast is being drowned in it.

She’s just seventeen, she thinks. She’s just seventeen, she’s constantly on the run, and she doesn’t have the kind of power needed to protect herself in such a delicate state.

Vergil is just so, _so_ scared.

What she wouldn’t do now to have her mother and her Dante at her side. But they’re not here anymore. She is on her own with this predicament.

Vergil needs to hide. And change her name too, to her absolute disgust.

It would make her harder to find, true, but she feels as if she was betraying her family for changing her name. 

She needs to change her name, she doesn’t want to, but—

The only idea she can accept is to make an anagram of her name. Otherwise, she would never be able to see herself in the mirror.

After that, she’ll need to enable wards around the area she’ll be staying in. It is dangerous for Vergil to stay in one place, even with the wards, but there is no other choice in her head.

She will need to prepare herself for so much it’s not even funny.

Vergil cried herself to sleep for the first time since the fire has consumed all her world.

~*~

Vergil was eighteen when she left her daughter, Nero, in the orphanage.

Taking her with Vergil would be too dangerous, the blood that’s running in her veins is attracting demons like honey attracts the flies, and as strong as she became over the years, Vergil is not so strong to be able to protect both herself and her daughter. Moreover, Vergil is constantly on the run, and her accommodations are less than ideal for a newborn.

Nero will be safe here — Sparda’s blood is not strong enough to be a danger for her until much later in life, if ever.

Vergil was eighteen when she found that Dante, in fact, is not dead.

Her sister hide under the false name, Antoine ‘Tony’ Redgrave, abandoning who she was, _what_ she was for… what? _Why_ would she do such a thing? 

Does their family ( ~~Vergil~~ ) mean nothing to Dante?

She even found a replacement for their mother. And Vergil cannot forgive that.

This marks the first time Vergil kills a human.

Later, she abandoned Dante just like she abandoned their family.

Maybe it was a petty and a cruel revenge, but she wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she didn’t punish her sister for forgetting about them.

( ~~She doesn’t like to think about it, because such a thing as _guilt_ is beneath her~~.)

She was nineteen when she sends Arkham to ‘invite’ Dante to the Temen-Ni-Gru. Vergil _desperately_ needs the power Sparda has sealed away together with the Demon World, she desperately _needs_ to feel safe for the first time since she was eight.

She was nineteen when she finally succumbed to her desire and falls on her knees, takes Dante’s hand and plants a kiss on it.

Not even a second later her cheek is angry red from the slap Dante stroke.

“Don’t do things you don’t mean, _sister_ ” she rips her hand away, turns on her heel and goes away.

The pain disappeared after thirty seconds, but Vergil still feels shame for receiving such a blow.

Very well then, if Dante doesn’t want this, she won’t give it to her, see if Vergil really care.

( ~~She doesn’t think about how her heart stopped beating for a second, she doesn’t think about how Dante’s eyes became glossy with unshed tears, she hadn’t even seen those, she had _not_~~.)

Vergil was nineteen when she dueled with her sister for the last time, and Dante _won_.

How was Dante able to do that is beyond Vergil. Her sister was messy, dirty, and _tired_ after fighting the denizens of the tower and running all around the place. Sh also just awaken her devil blood, she should be exhausted beyond belief. When Vergil first awaken, she was literally running on adrenaline for about an hour before her body shut down on her and Vergil passed out for the next three days. 

And here is Dante, who fought for five hours and still seems to be in a perfect condition.

Vergil was ready to abandon Dante once more, to fall into the Underworld to hide away from shame for being defeated by her younger sister, when the ground started to suddenly shake.

It seems that Temen-Ni-Gru is not going to stand around after its purpose has been fulfilled.

As if predicting what would happen, Dante has not only pushed out of the way of jumping down, but she also threw some notebook at her face so hard it nearly broke her nose.

“Take care of my shop, will ya?!”

The last thing Vergil sees of her sister is her signature blood-red coat.

So Dante has chosen her fate, Vergil thinks. 

She’s not going to go after her. It is enough that the younger twin has defeated her, Vergil will not be ridiculed by Dante for being _sentimental_. 

Vergil won’t miss her. She won’t, she won’t, _she will not_.

(She still carefully hides the notebook away in the inner pocket of her coat.)

~*~

The notebook has a hole at the bottom corner, as if Dante has shot through it with one of her guns, and to this hole are keys attached. 

On the first page, there is some basic information, to whom the notebook belongs (her real name was listed just under the old alias, with the surname ‘Sparda’, added as if it was an afterthought, an impulse, which Vergil finds interesting), address, the promise of death if someone reads it without her permission, the usual stuff.

But Vergil can’t go to her sister’s belonging just yet and see if there is something salvageable. There is one more thing she needs to make sure of before she goes there.

And that is how Vergil found herself back in Fortuna, a week after The Tower Incident, as humans deemed to name the tragedy that befell on the population of the city.

Barely a step in Fortuna she feels a desperate cry of her daughter’s blood to her.

There is no force in nature or otherwise that could stop Vergil from coming to the orphanage.

Nero is playing alone in the yard, building a sand castle. She seems to be very invested in doing it, trying and failing to make the bucket go upside down, but she doesn’t give up in her task.

When she finally was able to turn the bucket, Nero carefully lifted it, to show the perfectly shaped castle. She looks so proud of herself, Vergil’s heart clenches at the sight.

And this is when some boys run over the castle, destroying it completely, and dirtying Nero’s shirt.

And her daughter looks just so _resigned_ , as if the exact same situation was happening before.

Nero doesn’t cry, like a normal child would. She doesn’t even scream. She’s not even _sad_ , she’s just resigned.

 _It should not be like that_.

A heartbeat later, Vergil has a small girl in her arms.

Nero doesn’t struggle, she’s not crying or screaming, and it may be just because she feels how Vergil’s blood is singing to her own, but it still says an awful lot about how Nero was treated in the orphanage if she’s not even struggling or looking back when Vergil takes her away from the only place she ever knew.

Leaving Nero there was a mistake.

( ~~She should have taken Nero with her, take her to _Dante_ , because even if her sister hated her, she wouldn’t have hated her niece, who has their mother’s eyes. She would have helped Vergil, even if for just as long as it took Nero to start learning how to defend herself.~~

~~Vergil tries to convince herself it would have been enough time.~~

~~But even she admits it, in the quiet corners of her mind, it was a lie~~.)

After opening a portal, she takes her daughter’s hand in her own.

“Come my dear, from now on your mother will take care of you.”

~*~

She was expecting the shop her sister left in her care will be more hopeless.

Sure, it has a hole or two in the floor, and it’s dusted to hell and back, but it all can be rather easy to clean up. More challenging will be getting rid of the demons’ blood from the panels, but Vergil will need to change them anyway, so she’s not even going to bother trying.

( ~~She doesn’t like to think just how many alcohol bottles are littered around~~.)

This place is also very spacious. She never would have thought Dante will need such a big place for herself.

On the first floor is a massive amount of unpacked boxes in the hall, three large rooms, one of which is Dante’s bedroom, and a small bathroom with a shower.

There is enough space for her daughter and herself to have their own rooms without using the one Dante chose, and Vergil still has enough money in her bank account to buy some necessary furniture from second-hand. Besides, she’s pretty sure there still are some furniture in their old manor that are salvageable.

(She’s not going to use Dante’s room to sleep in. She will lock it, if she ever finds the keys to the door and never go there. 

It is enough of a humiliation Vergil is going to use Dante’s place as her own, even if she’s trying to convince herself she’s just using it because otherwise it would stand empty and not needed by anyone, and Dante _did_ just buy it.)

Vergil almost wishes Dante is there, watching Vergil make plans for renovations, lamenting about how Vergil already behaves as if she owns the place.

~*~

How Nero was able to figure out how the jukebox works, Vergil will never know, but one day she was woken up by it, because apparently her sister is _deaf_ and the volume was turned to maximum

How come the neighbours didn’t get on Dante’s, or now hers, case by now?

Oh, right. There are no neighbours, for which Vergil will be forever grateful.

Nero is really drawn to the strong guitars of rock music, and to soft jazz, and even Vergil was growing fond of them the longer she was listening to them. Normally, music to her ears was just a background voice, but with time she started appreciating the melodies and harmonies.

When Vergil actually _started_ listening to the lyrics though, she immediately took away most of the vinyls and locked them away in Dante’s room. Many of them just had strong language, but some songs were just downright _nasty_ and a child has no business to listening to them. Some of them were just really depressing, and a few ringed a little too close to Vergil’s heart, so much in fact she just couldn’t stand them.

She herself liked Queen and Pink Floyd the most, while her daughter loves the voices of Joan Jett, Alice Cooper and absolutely adores the songs of Judas Priest.

In the quiet of her room, Vergil wonders what bands and vocalists Dante liked listening to the most.

~*~

Months passed by, and Nero seems to grow bigger every day. She was so shy for the first few weeks, but when she got used to all new things, she got more and more confident. It didn’t take long for Nero to dance, and run around the office, singing and playing with her wooden sword with a big smile on her face.

Vergil has enrolled her to a nursery after three months living together, so she could hunt the demons and make money without thinking where to find a suitable nanny for a part demon.

(She doesn’t like to think how she took the exact path Dante has chosen for herself before Vergil raised Temen-Ni-Gru.)

She reminded her of her younger twin so much it actually hurts. Nero is just as spirited as her, and the smile almost never gets off her face, and Vergil’s heart clenches with protectiveness every time she thinks just how much Vergil loves her daughter.

She tucks Nero into the bed, kisses her forehead goodnight and gives her the plushie she loves the most.

Vergil leaves the room, goes downstairs and sit by the desk, looking over the office.

It is still rather naked looking, but Vergil doesn’t have yet the kind of money to buy more furnitures. At the very least she was able to change the floors, the TV Dante already has in one of her boxes, the bookcase and the couch Vergil got from the old manor.

It still feels empty though.

The notebook in the inner pocket of her coat got so heavy Vergil finally took it out and laid it on the desk, but she still doesn’t open it. Even after months, she’s still hesitant to open it.

Vergil chuckles darkly under her nose, thinking just how stupid her hesitation is, and opens it.

_Nell threw this thing at me saying something like: “From now on, this is your anger management, and hopefully you stop being so disorganized too!”_

_Please. My anger management is just fine, and killing demons do wonders on my mood._

_But I’ll humor her just this once._

_Let’s start with that this is NOT a diary, but a journal — not only it sounds better, but also a diary wouldn’t be a proper term anyway..._

Vergil skips a few pages, especially those mentioning Nell. 

Most of them were day to day things, but the further she goes, the darker the entries gets.

_Today I was shot in the leg. Never knew the shot wound can close so fast._

_It is not normal._

_I think the demons are following me around. Gotta get rid of ‘em fast._

_Some guy had the balls to actually touch me when I explicitly made it known I do not want it. This time I just punched the jackass in the face and get away, but when I was fourteen, the guy back then wasn’t nearly so lucky._

_Today’s the anniversary of the fire._

_I have never told anyone what happened back then, but maybe I should at least write about it. Maybe it stops weighting on my mind so much ~~I know it won’t, but oh well, a girl can dream.~~_

_It began in the evening, I was in the ballroom, when I smelled the fire and smoke in the air. I started running towards Vergil’s room, to see if she’s over there, but the fire has cut off my way there. Mom has found me when I collapsed in front of my own room._

_She sharply took my arm, hauling me up and almost threw into the closet, telling me to stay there, and in case she’s not back, to run away, change my name and forget everything about the past. Then she went to find Vergil._

_I heard her screaming Vergil’s name a few times, before demons killed her._

_Oh, her dying scream haunts my nightmares still._

Oh. Oh, no.

Vergil did not know about that.

She worked on the wrong assumptions this whole time? It was always about respecting mother’s last wishes?

_Vergil’s alive._

_I've to find some stronger alcohol to drink, because vodka ain't it anymore for me._

_I’m not going to use Antoine Redgrave as my name anymore. I’m strong enough to come back to my old name._

_Today’s our birthday, but I don’t feel like celebrating._

Vergil carefully regulates her breathing while reading the notebook. The information contained there is more than overwhelming for Vergil, but she knows she will leave it to rot until the end of the world if she stops reading it now. 

Vergil breathes in and out, and she turns the last page. 

It is a letter. 

_Vergil,_

_If you’re reading this, I am probably dead or out of commission, or even MIA, and you’re still alive obviously._

_Take care of the shop will ya? It’s now yours. Maybe it’s not the best, but it was mine for some time, so I’m rather attached to it. First building I’ve ever owned and all of that jazz. And first permanent place I’ve been living in too. Thought it is big enough for two people to live rather comfortably, you know?_

_If you’re going to use it as an office for devil hunting business, like I was going to, can you maybe name it Devil May Cry? The name has a nice ring to it, I think._

_Take care sis, love ya._

_Dante_

Vergil has cried herself to sleep on the desk in the darkness of this night, hating herself more than ever before.

~*~

A Mallet Island job was stinking from the very second the facsimile of her mother came to her ( ~~Dante’s, it will always be Dante’s~~ ) office, destroyed it (oh, Vergil is going to kick her ass and steal her money for that, she did not spend _years_ to make money to renovate the place just for some fake chick to destroy it) and then had the balls to make her go to the Island.

The only, _only_ reason why Vergil even bothers with going there is because the Mallet Island is one of the Hell Gates, and maybe she’ll be able to learn Dante’s fate. Kicking some lame Emperor’s ass is a nice bonus.

Good thing Nero has a few-days long school trip when Vergil will be away. And thank God for Morrison, who takes care of her daughter on prolonged missions, just like this one.

‘Trish’, as she calls herself, is a woman who is similar to Eva only in her appearance. Her mother, Vergil is sure, would never wear such crude clothes, also ‘Trish’ is much, _much_ stronger than any human has a right to be.

Why did that demon took her mother’s looks? To easier manipulate her? To lure her into the trap that the Mallet is?

Whatever it is, Vergil will soon find out.

~*~

Once on Mallet, Vergil could feel strangely familiar energy. It was pulling on her senses, almost shy, almost seductive.

It reminded her of Sparda.

~*~

 _Mundus_.

The demon lord that destroyed her family’s happiness, the fake God that made Trish, the _murderer_ who’s tanged in that familiar-but-not energy.

Oh, Vergil is going to rip him apart.

~*~

Vergil wasn’t able to rip him to shreds in the end, but she still has driven him back to hell (Trish has helped), and with him the strange energy disappeared too.

“Why did you helped me?” Vergil asks, turning to the demon.

“Queen’s orders.”

“Queen?”

“You must be really favoured by her, because Queen does not care for anyone other than her children. She’s Mundus’ wife.”

“Who is she? That Queen.”

“What do you mean? She’s the Queen.”

“The identity. Name, who she is, what type of demon she is.”

“I don’t know. She came from nowhere, already bonded with the Emperor, or at least that’s what rumors say. Some even say she’s a mermaid, or a succubus that can hypnotize powerful demons. We are calling her Bianco Angelo, because she’s always wearing her white dress and a mask. Only the Emperor and highest devils know who she is.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“You don’t have to tell me that.”

“Well, I actually don’t care about that Queen, even if she has some interest in me. What I _am_ interested in is: have you heard about someone named Dante in hell?”

“No.”

Vergil’s heart stops beating for a second, but then she starts making excuses. Maybe Dante just hides really well down there, maybe it’s just that Trish has never been in the area her sister has been in at the time. After all, Dante was able to stay under the radar for _years_.

( ~~Even Vergil doesn’t believe in those excuses, but she desperately needs to _hope_ Dante is still alive.~~)

“Very well then. Now, I believe you owe me money for destroying my office…?”

~*~

With every birthday passing, Vergil misses Dante more and more.

She’s not celebrating them, not really at least, except for having a day in the shop and not working at all, instead she takes Nero, and they watch some movies whole day long while eating pizza or cheeseburgers, or other unhealthy food.

When comes the time for Nero’s birthday, she always has a cake ready for her, and a gift.

A year before Vie del Marli mission, Vergil gives her daughter her very first Devil Arm.

She can see now why her father took such an immense joy in giving the twins’ their blades.

Nero has named the blade Red Queen, and Vergil’s thoughts has turned to the other red queen of her life.

Dante would have loved Nero so much. Mother too, now that Vergil thinks about it.

Her heart bleeds every time she sees her photo Dante left on the desk, and the same happens when she sees the photo of them both in Dante’s room.

Vergil rarely goes in there, just to clean it from dust, and she prohibited Nero from ever going there.

She still refuses to use that room, but unlike before, it is now a matter of guilt, not pride. It is enough she stole the place Dante has called home, she read her notebook too, Vergil will not rob her of the privacy of her own room like that.

Even if the place technically belongs to her, Vergil still feels as if she was an intruder to this place.

She would’ve rather that Devil May Cry was theirs, not her alone.

~*~

Letting Lucia go to hell would mean signing her death sentence, and Vergil is having none of that, not when there finally is an excuse for her to go to the Underworld.

She can go there and find Dante at last, and Vergil is not going to let anyone steal this opportunity from her. Not when for the first time in years she has hope to find her darling younger sister.

Nero will be fine — she’s already a woman, and a devil huntress in her own right, trained by Vergil. She will take care of everything with her ever faithful Red Queen, and Lady, Morrison and Trish are there to help, if her daughter ever needs it.

Even if Lady is not exactly fond of Vergil, they were able to come to an understanding and agreement years down after Temen-Ni-Gru. It was a long talk, that has ended up in exchanging blows, cuts and shots, but they both managed to somehow reach a middle ground. They don’t like each other still, but instead of being enemies, the two are now business partners.

All of that, for Dante, who influenced both women’s lives so much.

Vergil runs into the portal after Argosax, not looking back even once.

~*~

Hell is a hostile and chaotic. The place Argosax, and she landed in is a wasteland, that only got worse after Vergil wiped the floor of it with the devil’s ass.

After that one-sided duel, Vergil was attacked by a flock of weaker demons. She would feel flattered by it, for it means even tired she’s still a force to recon with, but right now she’s just pissed off. Vergil has just one purpose for which she came here, and those demons are standing in the way.

When she cut those demons into sashimi, she wanders around the Underworld in search of her sister.

Vergil looks for any hint about Dante, if she was in the area recently or, in the worst case, she wants to find evidence her darling is dead.

In the end, she found an ancient looking devil, who is not able to move well enough to hunt anymore. He promised to help her, if she finds him and hunts demons for him to eat. It is a small price to pay for any information about her sister, and even if the devil turns on her, Vergil can kill him just as easily as the rest of his kin.

As it turns out, he is an Oracle, or something close to being him. There can be only one Oracle alive, as he says, and the Crown Princess, the firstborn of Mundus and Queen, is rumored to be the one.

He only is able to answer any asked question about whereabouts of any person or thing, but he cannot do so directly. He can only lead the path to find them, he says.

“Olde Magick is a capricious thing, my dear. Humans and Devils that tamed it and bounded to rules even more so.”

“Humans have bounded magic?”

“They were like Gods among their kin, just like the devils who tamed the magic were Gods for us. Old Magic, just like any other, became sentient after being tamed. Our Emperor claims to be a descendant of those devils, even if it is not true. He is a son of other family of old, the one who tamed Black Magic, the magic of Shapeshifters and Makers. Now, ask your question.”

“Where can I find Dante?”

The old devil’s eyes lighten up with a brilliant light for a second, before they became white once again.

“You have to go to the Emperor’s castle, and talk with the Princess. She is the key for you to find your sister, she and the Queen are. But be careful and do not attack any of Queen’s children, she is a vicious and cruel creature to any harboring an ill intent towards young Princess and Prince.”

Again with that ‘Queen’. Why is she so intertwined with Vergil? Why is she one of the keys to find her darling?

Why did she send Trish to aid her in defeating Mundus?

 _Who_ is she?

That doesn’t matter right now, Vergil decides. Not when she has a castle to conquer.

~*~

She will not conquer this castle. The building is _enormous_.

If Vergil was still nineteen and as cocksure as back then, she would take the challenge in a heartbeat in her arrogance. She would have stormed the castle and fight anyone who needed ass kicking. 

But she is not nineteen anymore.

Vergil knows an impossible task when she sees one. Instead, she’s going to just sneak in and find that Princess, ask as nicely as she can to take her to the Queen, or better yet, straight to Dante, and maybe she’ll fight Mundus at the end, just to rub in she’s clearly a superior demon to him, even without being a full-blooded devil.

She walks inside.

The hall is drowned in darkness, red curtains are hanging from the walls in between of paintings. She can only assume they are the prominent historical figures, if only because demon lords are changing constantly.

She’s almost at the end, when the heavy doors open.

“There you are! I’ve been told you’ll be there today!”

A girl, which looks similar in age to her Nero, walks towards her with a laugh on her lips. She’s shorter than Vergil, her long white hair are made in twin French braids, the face hidden behind white mask with two golden dots under each eye. The mask itself reveals only the lower part of the girl’s face and the golden eyes with pupils like that of a cat. Her smile is full of sharp teeth.

She wears a purple dress reminding Vergil of the Roman togas with its cut, a golden cloth is acting like a belt around the waist.

The girl’s appearance is that of a human, but similarly to Trish, she’s a devil, even if something is blocking her energy from flaring and making itself known to the world. She’s a dangerous one.

“You’ve been, weren’t you?”

“Uh huh, of course! Old Magic has never lied to me before. Come with me, I’ll take you to queen mother to meet her, she’s already waiting for us. Probably.”

“Probably?”

“Don’t be such a spoilsport, besides, what is life without some measure of uncertainty?”

“A comfy one.”

“...No wonder mother queen sometimes gets so frustrated any time she’s thinking about you. Doesn’t matter, I have to take you to mother queen before father king knows you’re here. He will know sooner or later about you, even if his Eyes usually look far beyond the castle.”

he takes Vergil’s hand and literally drags her.

On the back of her dress, embroidered is a crescent moon with a full sun inside. It fits the Oracle well.

“By the way, my name’s Phoebe.”

“Vergil.”

“Oh, I know it already. Hey, we’re at mother queen’s chambers!”

It took suspiciously little amount of time to get there.

The Princess knocked twice, and massive black doors opened.

Inside was the Queen, sitting on enormous red armchair, reading a book.

Just like her daughter, she has a white mask on her face, but hers is hiding the whole face instead of just half. Under left eye there are three dots, and under the right eye is a long vertical line. What is interesting though, it seems as if the mask is somehow connected to the big sword that is leaning on the armchair.

The white dress has a long split that shows off a whole leg until the hip, and the split disappears in a white sash, that is tied behind in a big bow. She’s also wearing a cloth similar to a corset, embedded with a golden ribbon. Under all of this, Queen wears a skin-tight gray lace shirt, that somehow blends in with the whole look. On her hands are long, opera-like white gloves, just like would-be corset embedded with golden ribbons.

Her hair is made in an elaborate hairdo, and from her left ear hangs a long golden earring, ended with a black decorative stone.

Queen looks straight at Vergil with her cold, blue eyes.

“I was wondering when you’ll get here” she says in a soft mezzo-soprano that is weirdly distorted, as if it was under the spell to make it unrecognizable by anyone. She seems to have a perfect control over it, and does not let any emotion bleed into her voice.

“Unfortunately for you, I need to inform the Emperor about your arrival.”

Bianco Angelo takes her sword in hand, and stands up.

The sword itself reminds Vergil a little of Rebellion in size, but the guard has a mask of a Jester with a crown on top of it.

Curious, that. Vergil is now able to pinpoint exactly that the mask on Queen’s face is linked to the mask on the claymore.

“Hm, mother’s not in the mood for a chit-chat” says the Princess, hooking her arm with Vergil’s.

For some reason, Vergil let her do that.

“Phoebe, where is Surtr?”

“WIth father king, mother.”

Queen looks at Vergil once more.

“My husband’s surely knows about you by now, so if you please go with us, it will save time for all of us.”

“I am not here for _Mundus_ ” Vergil growls out. “I am here for my sister, and I was told you know where she is.”

“Oh, so you don’t want to meet and greet your mother’s murderer?”

Vergil attacks the Queen with summoned swords, which she easily evades, just to block Yamato’s scabbard. 

She’s fast, Vergil notes. Maybe she’ll be a worthy opponent for someone of elder twin’s caliber.

“What do you know?”

“Does it really matter that much?”

The Queen grates on Vergil’s nerves with that impassiveness of her voice.

Vergil takes back the scabbard, hoping Queen will stumble a little with that (she doesn’t), and instead attacks with Yamato’s blade, her beloved weapon practically sings with bloodlust.

Their swords clash, the metal rings in the chamber.

Queen is strong, but that doesn’t surprise Vergil all that much. Anyone who use such a big sword with such ease has to be, but with strength comes the surprising speed with which the Angelo fights. And it is as if the Queen knows Vergil’s favoured fighting style from somewhere, because how otherwise she would be able to predict all the moves and spells with such an ease? And she is not letting Vergil gain any distance between them, as if knowing Vergil will use this opportunity to use Judgement Cut against her.

Her eyes focused on the rain guard of the claymore. Maybe if she destroys it, the Queen will finally lose her focus.

Vergil block a high slash of the claymore.

Firstly, she needs to make sure she won’t be cut to pieces while trying to hit the mask.

The Jester looks as if it was taunting her, _daring_ her to destroy it, if she can, The mask is giggling, even though it has no mouth. It plays on Vergil’s buttons and nerves.

It doesn’t matter now if it is a strategic move or not, Vergil _will_ destroy it if it is the last thing she’s going to do. It’s a matter of pride now.

Every so often, Vergil is sending spectral swords towards Queen, hoping she will get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of them, and will be more focused on evading them than on focusing on Vergil and Yamato. But unfortunately, Bianco Angelo seems to see right through the plan, because she pays almost no attention to the spectral swords, and her eyes never leaves Vergil.

 _Very_ dangerous. 

The only other person that could go step by step with Vergil was Dante.

That bit of distraction costs Vergil a dent in the skull from the heavy claymore, which is downright _mean_. If Vergil was merely a human, she would be definitely dead from that blow.

But because she is not, in fact, a mere human, their elaborate dance continues.

And finally, _finally_ the Queen looks at one of the spectral swords for a second too long, and this is all the leeway Vergil needed to almost teleport to the claymore and destroy the mask on it with a vicious, triumphant smile.

The pieces of a metal mask falls on the stone floor, revealing…

Rebellion.

The mask on Queen’s face falls apart, revealing beloved face and releasing the almost too hot energy into the air.

“ _Dante…_ ” The name tastes like a salvation on Vergil’s tongue.

The heart in her chest beats harder, stronger. It is as if it’s alive again, and not just existing in her ribcage.

Dante’s face is still stone-cold, but Vergil sees the all-consuming fire in her eyes. Her sister grew up to become a real beauty, but in a different way than her teenage self — some of her face lines are a bit softer, while the others sharpened, like her eyes, and her blood-red lips became fuller, even more kissable than they were before.

It is not the first time Vergil wonders how soft her sister’ lips would be if she touched them with her fingertips, or with her own mouth. What would have happened if she licked on them, tasting her sister, and work up to a kiss with a tongue, gentle at first, until it got more brutal with their passion and lust for each other. She would make her sister’s pupils dilate with the pleasure.

“Mundus is waiting for you” Dante says and before Vergil can even argue, or start _begging_ , her lovely sister leaves the room.

She feels a tug on her sleeve, and the elder sister turns to Phoebe.

“You’ll need to win mother over, auntie” she says. “Father and mother are bonded to each other through demonic marriage, and so she cannot challenge him in any way, just like he cannot do the same. To break the bond, you need to fight with father and _win_.”

“Why are you telling me this? You have a nice life here, don’t you want to keep it?”

Phoebe smiles sadly.

“I am locked in this castle just like mother and Surtr are, and we get to go out only on a weekly hunting parties with mother and a horde of guards. Besides, mother is not happy here. In all my life, the only time I saw her smile and being happy was when she had Surtr in her arms for the first time, and that was back when I was five.”

Phoebe turns her eyes away from Vergil.

“I want to see mother smiling more, I want her to be finally _happy_.”

Her sister daughter takes off her own mask, and the power it unleashes feels similar to Dante’s but it is more similar to Sparda’s.

She has two cute beauty marks under each gold eye.

“Let’s go to the throne room, I can feel father king getting impatient.”

~*~

Before getting inside the room Phoebe disappears in, Vergil takes a look at the wedding portrait of her sister.

She looks beautiful in it, even if Vergil hates seeing her with such a stony face.

And to this day, Dante wears her wedding dress. It is as if Mundus makes her to do it, to flaunt over she’s still his bride.

Vergil turns on her heel and gets inside the throne room.

The whole family is already in there, with Mundus sitting on the throne, Dante standing on his right, while Phoebe is on his left. The boy she can only assume is Surtr stands next to his sister.

The boy, contrary to the roots of his name, is wearing clothes inspired more by ancient Egypt opposed to Nordic Vikings era. Vergil really shouldn’t be surprised — her sister thrives on being unpredictable, and it is only fair if at least one of her children inherits that trait.

His torso is bare except for a heavy golden necklace, his orange skirt is much longer than those wore by Pharaohs. The belt, just like the necklace, is gold, and Surtr has something akin to a gear running down on the sides of his tights.

Just like his sister, he has white hair, but his is much shorter and free from any ribbons, and his gold eyes betrayed just how bored with the whole situation he is.

“Finally, the eldest daughter of Sparda arrived. The whole family is together at last.”

“I do not remember letting you talk, Mundus.”

“And you have such a smart mouth too. Your mother should have washed your mouth with a soap back in the day, then maybe you wouldn’t be such un-lady-like, sister-in-law.”

“If you really think I will ever accept you as a part of my family, you will be sorely disappointed.”

“Oh, really? Am I not the father of your niece and nephew, and the husband of your sister? Who, to point it out, married me _willingly_. Isn’t that right, my bride?”

“Yes.”

Her sister, married to the demon Emperor, for the last who knows years (judging by Phoebe’s age, she’s been there for at least eighteen years, and Vergil feels how her stomach turns around).

He summons her to himself with a hand, and her lovely, beautiful sister comes with no protest. Mundus pulls the bow, and the part of the dress Vergil took for a skirt falls down, unraveling Dante’s legs and a bodysuit she’s wearing. A smart illusion.

“She and I made a deal, you know? Her body, freedom and hand, for your and your family’s freedom and assurance I will not make the first move to attack either you or your family. I also agreed to not send her or her children on crusades to the Human World for as long as she lives” he slips a hand under the bodysuit and gropes Dante’s ass, the second one went to her breast.

Her sister doesn’t even flinch. She’s like an obedient doll, which is wrong, wrong, _wrong_.

“She sacrificed her freedom, knowing one day you’ll come to me, knowing you’ll attack me and nothing will be able to protect you from my wrath. And I’ll have you know, she has been _very_ obedient since our wedding night.”

Vergil was as serene as the sea, but the problem is the sea is red from the blood, and it is storming.

Last time she felt such a fury was when she was eight and demons brought the hellfire to the place it did not belong.

Mundus _dares_ to touch Dante like that, he _dares_ to make her submit to his will, the unstoppable force of nature her sister is, and he _dares_ to laugh at her face, taunting her just how much Dante sacrificed for Vergil.

For the second time in her life, Vergil’s memory faults her, and she comes back to herself only to see shredded pieces of Mundus lying around the throne room.

She looks at Dante, who is pointing Rebellion at her, hiding her children behind her body.

“Are you going to kill us now too, sister?”

And for the first time since Temen-Ni-Gru, Vergil drops on her knees in front of Dante, and does what she saw Sparda doing only once to Eva — she presents Yamato to her.

It is the most precious thing in her possession except for Nero. Yamato, her ally, her companion, who helped her survive all those cold years, a gift from their father to the elder twin, and Vergil hopes beyond hope Dante understands it and will accept her.

One tear, then two, then a whole flood of them are on Dante’s face.

She _understood_.

Her darling sister takes Yamato from her hands, and embraces Vergil’s head, kissing the top of it.

“You get it, you finally get it, you finally _mean_ it, Vergil…!”

She hugs Dante’s hips as hard as she dares.

She finally is together with her younger twin again.

“Mother, what will we do now?” Surtr’s quiet voice cuts through their reunion.

“Why, you’re going with me to the Overworld” says Vergil, unwillingly releasing Dante from her hold. She stands up and takes the Yamato back from Dante’s hand.

“You can’t cut here, sister. This is one of the spots Old Magic is the densest and strongest, and that’s why Mundus has chosen this place to build his castle. The whole Underworld will unravel in its seams, and trust me, we do not want that.”

Dante takes Surtr’s mask from his face, and the room fills with one more energy, so similar to Dante’s Vergil could mistake it for her sister’s. Her sister taps at it, something flares up the mask and just a second later she has four Faust’s Cloaks in her hand.

“Don’t ask me how I got them, you probably don’t wanna know it” she says. “Always knew they will come in handy. Let’s hurry before Mundus gets himself back to shape.”

“How is he still alive?!”

“We’re in his dominion, it’s not that easy to kill him here, but you roughen him up enough to snap our bonds with him.”

Dante gives out the cloaks, puts her own on her, and when her children wears theirs, she takes her hands and runs towards the exit. Vergil is not far behind her, making sure no one follows them out.

When they are sufficiently far away from the castle, Dante drops Phoebe’s and Surtr’s hands.

“We are finally free. I’m telling you, I am definitely not going to miss this hellhole” says Dante, already sounding more alive than just five minutes ago.

Vergil opens the portal ahead, and takes one of Dante’s hand. Surtr holds Vergil’s hand now, and Phoebe takes his in hers.

“Then let’s go back home.”

**Author's Note:**

> My [Twitter](https://twitter.com/AsphodelSky?s=09), where I retweet stuff and sometimes scream into the void


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